More rain expected after storm causes fatal accidents, power outages, damage to homes

A Pacific storm that drew energy from the subtropics unleashed ferocious winds and intense rain across San Diego County on Friday, causing fatal accidents, power outages affecting thousands of residents and damage to homes when uprooted trees fell on them.

The precipitation was part of a broad, fast-moving system that generated even wilder winds and heavier rainfall across other parts of Southern California, including a 72 mph gust in the Long Beach Harbor area. Hundreds of flights were canceled at several airports, a person was electrocuted by downed power lines and a motorist was killed in a submerged car in Los Angeles.

The National Weather Service said altogether, the system could end up being the strongest storm to hit Southern California since 1995.

In San Diego County, the storm hit with unusual force at the coast. That was especially true of the winds, which snapped trees and whipped high-flying flags. At least one wind-blown eucalyptus tree fell across both lanes of north state Route 163 and landed on a vehicle south of Robinson Avenue in Hillcrest about 3:45 p.m.

In Point Loma, fire crews found a 70-foot palm tree that fell onto a house on Kellogg Street near San Antonio Avenue around 2:30 p.m. Shortly before 4 p.m., a tree toppled onto a duplex on Caminito Rio Brancho near Appaloosa Road in Scripps Ranch, San Diego police said. Another tree fell onto a house on Maryland Street near Monroe Avenue in University Heights about 5 p.m.

No one was hurt in those incidents.

The tempestuous weather also bedeviled San Diego State University and the University of San Diego, whose baseball teams managed to start home games but not finish them.

And the combination of concentrated rain and powerful winds led to a rash of accidents, particularly because the peak of the storm came ashore in San Diego County as commuters headed home from work Friday. Authorities reported two deadly vehicle collision on Interstate 15.

The National Weather Service said that the storm would release most of its energy before dawn Saturday, but that sporadic and sometimes heavy showers are possible until late this afternoon. Thick columns of large surf are rolling ashore, posing a threat to people who linger on coastal rocks.

Forecasters said the system was expected to drop 1’’ to 2’’ of rain across San Diego’s coastal zone by noon Saturday and up to 2.5” in some mountain areas.

San Diego was hit by an “atmospheric river,” the term forecasters for the long columns of moisture that sometimes track directly into California. This one arose in the western Pacific and drenched the whole state, including Northern California, where workers were monitoring a damaged spillway at Lake Oroville.

The storm swung into Ventura County, flooding part of the 101 Freeway at Seacliff, then did the same at the 405/90 Freeway interchange in West L.A. The system then slumped into Orange County, producing widespread flash flooding, before sinking farther south, where it swirled ashore at Camp Pendleton and Oceanside.

The winds shredded some trees and knocked others down, causing power outages in places like Point Loma, where Point Loma Nazarene University canceled classes for the day.

SDG&E also reported outages in many other spots, from Barrio Logan and Golden Hill to Ramona and Chula Vista.

Emergency workers were prepared for the onslaught.

Cal Fire said two swift-water rescue teams would be staged around the clock, one in North County and one in East County, until the greatest flooding risk has passed. Also, eight Cal Fire hand crews will be available to help stem floods by filling sand bags, building diversion dams or taking other actions.

With the storm feeding on an atmospheric river of moisture stretching far out into the Pacific, precautionary evacuations of homes in some neighborhoods were requested due to the potential for mudslides and debris flows.

More than 300 arriving and departing flights were delayed or canceled at Los Angeles International Airport alone.

In the Sherman Oaks area of Los Angeles, a falling tree downed power lines and hit a car. A 55-year-old man was electrocuted and pronounced dead at a hospital, police and fire officials said.

Winds gusting to 60 mph or more lashed the area. Heavy rains turned creeks and rivers into brown torrents and released slews of mud from hillsides burned barren by wildfires. Several stretches of freeways and highways were closed by flooding.

“It's crazy,” said Robin Johnson, an academic adviser at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “It's just pouring down rain. The wind is just going nuts.”

“At one point the wind was so strong I'm surprised it didn't blow my windows out,” retiree Phoenix Hocking said in a Facebook message from Carpinteria. “I now have a pond in my patio. And my dog is starting to grow flippers so he can go out and do his business.”

In the desert town of Victorville, several cars were washed down a flooded street. A helicopter rescued one person from the roof of a car but another motorist was found dead in a submerged vehicle, San Bernardino County fire spokesman Eric Sherwin said.

Elsewhere in the county, a 20-mile stretch of State Route 138 in the West Cajon Valley was closed at the scene of a summer wildfire.

In Los Angeles’ Sun Valley, 10 cars were trapped in swift-moving water on a roadway and eight people had to be rescued, the Fire Department reported.

Using ropes and inflatable boats, firefighters rescued seven people and two dogs from the Sepulveda basin, a recreation and flood-control area along the Los Angeles River. One person was taken to a hospital with a non-life threatening injury.

The storm took aim at Southern California but also spread precipitation north into the San Joaquin Valley and up to San Francisco. It was not expected to bring significant rain in the far north where damage to spillways of the Lake Oroville dam forced evacuation of 188,000 people last weekend.

Knott's Berry Farm amusement park in Orange County closed because the weather. High surf pounded beaches.

By evening, Ventura County and northern Los Angeles County had seen 24-hour rain totals of up to 7 1/2 inches, with the San Marcos mountain pass in Santa Barbara County receiving nearly 8 1/2 inches.

Farther south, downtown Los Angeles had received about 1 1/2 inches of rain while some areas saw up to 4 inches.

The storm system was moving “very slowly” eastward and Los Angeles County was expected to see more rain through Saturday, said Joe Sirard, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

The city of Duarte, in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains east of Los Angeles, ordered evacuation of 180 homes below a burn scar. Up the coast, evacuations were urged for parts of Camarillo Springs in Ventura County and around an 11 1/2 -square-mile burn scar west of Santa Barbara.

Santa Anita Park near Pasadena canceled all its horse races Friday.

In Northern California, officials monitoring the stricken Oroville Dam on the Feather River said they were confident the reservoir would handle any runoff from expected storms because ongoing releases have been lowering the lake's level since its spillways were damaged last week.